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S.E. Wood No stimulus package Before you get the idea that I'm going off
on a right-wing tangent, let's see if we can start with a few
items on which we can all agree. It'll be easy. I'll furnish
the questions, and the answers. No. 1: Our country is in a rather serious
economic recession. We can surely agree on that one. No. 2: If this recession lasts until this
fall's election, it will be bad for the Republican Party. Probably.
Anyway, they'll get the blame for it. No. 3: If a continued recession is bad for
the Republican Party, then it must be good for the Democrat Party.
Yep, that's usually the way it works. Now with those thoughts in mind, let's look
at what happened with the president's economic stimulus package.
You will recall that the president's economic
plan was passed by the House way last fall, and sent on to the
Senate. But there it ran into trouble when the Democrats introduced
a stimulus package of their own. The primary differences were that the Bush
plan included stepping up the implementation of tax cuts already
approved in previous legislation and scrapping of the death tax,
once and for all. The Democrat plan did not include tax cuts,
but offered increased unemployment benefits and an expansion
of Medicaid. The Republicans said cutting taxes for individuals
and creating tax incentives for business expansion would stimulate
the economy and create more jobs. The Democrat plan offered greater
benefit to the currently unemployed, but did little to get them
back to work. The Senate has 100 members, so 51 votes are
necessary for passage. By Tuesday, Feb. 5, the Republican bill
had 53 committed votes, leaving 47 in support of the Democrat
bill. So rather than permit a vote, which would have resulted
in passage of the Republican-sponsored bill, Senate Majority
Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat, removed the bill from the agenda,
with the explanation that there were not enough votes committed
to pass either bill, so they would now go on to more important
issues, such as campaign finance reform. Sorry, but his statement was just not true.
There were clearly enough bipartisan votes to pass the Republican
bill, but not enough to override a Democrat filibuster, should
they chose to mount one. And of course, they would so choose.
So Sen. Daschle scuttled all hope for an economic stimulus package
... either Republican or Democrat. If we now go back to our original items of agreement, that a continued economic recession favors the Democrat party in this falls elections, Sen. Daschle's action becomes quite clear. Even if it means more plant closings, more unemployment, and more bankruptcies. · · · |